


Once upon a broken world

by Mitsuki81



Category: Neko no Ongaeshi | The Cat Returns
Genre: Alternate Universe, Eventual Romance, Family Feels, Gen, I'll try to updated the taggs as the story goes on, Memory Loss, Multi, Mystery, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, haha - Freeform, i don't know what to tag
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:07:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28266615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mitsuki81/pseuds/Mitsuki81
Summary: "A car passed by her, and the young woman had to move away to avoid being soaked by the water that splashed in her direction.That’s how she noticed that strange house."***"The stranger looked familiar in a way she couldn't pinpoint, and it bothered her. Because she knew deep down she had seen him somewhere before."***[Summary bounds to change at some point]
Relationships: Baron Humbert von Gikkingen/Yoshioka Haru, Hiromi & Yoshioka Haru, Muta & Yoshioka Haru, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Toto & Yoshioka Haru, Yoshioka Haru & Yuki
Comments: 3
Kudos: 5





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hello Everyone!
> 
> Here's my second entry in the TCR fandom! I hope you'll like this story!
> 
> Yeah, I know, the summary is not good, but I'm going to improve it as the story goes on, promise! As well as for the tags, I'm bad at them too, haha!
> 
> I'll be honest, I might not be very consistent with my updates, but I'll try my best!
> 
> I am not an English speaker, and I use Grammarly to help me avoid mistakes, I hope it'll be okay for you!
> 
> Enjoy!

As soon as the cries left her daughter’s lips, Naoko was running toward her room.

Her dear Haru, almost seven years old, was trashing and fighting against an invisible enemy in her bed, her limbs tangled in the bedsheets. The woman knelt next to her, avoiding a tinny fist that could have make her glasses fly to the ground, and took her daughter into her arms. She murmured nonsense into her child's ear, rocking her gently until the shivers stopped, morphing into ugly sobs.

“It… It was him, mom…” cried the little girl into her mother embrace.

“Who, little one?”

“It was the cat mom… He wanted me to marry him, but I don’t want to!” she explained before bursting into tears once more.

“It’s okay, sweetheart. I’m here, I’m going to protect you. He won’t come here to take you, I promise.” Murmured Naoko, her fingers combing Haru’s dark hair, a faraway look in her eyes.

The woman had an idea of what might have caused the nightmares. After all, the last few months had been stressful for both of them. Even if there was a protection on her daughter’s memories, she knew that it would take a toll on Haru’s health if she didn’t try to prevent them from coming.

“Listen to me, kitten,” eventually said Naoko, “I have some friends that could help you to keep that evil cat away…”

The little sniffed, wiping her nose with her sleeve, “R-Really?”

The woman had to bit back a comment about how unladylike it was and nodded.

“Yes. They are the kindest persons I know, and I am sure that they won’t mind to help you until you can deal yourself with this big bad cat.” Explained the older woman, tickling her daughter at the end, making her giggled.

With a soft sigh, she helped Haru settled back into bed, “Now close your eyes, I am going to call them. I promise you that you won’t have to worry anymore, okay, my treasure?”

“Okay, mom” mumbled Haru from under the covers, “Love you.”

“I love you too, sweetheart.”

With that, Naoko left the room, leaving the door slightly open to let a little light from the living room past.

Walking toward the kitchen, the woman sighed tiredly, rubbing her eyes, and prepare herself a glass of water.

She knew that her idea could be dangerous, as it would create a link that could allow those they had escaped nearly ten months ago to find them. Still, the situation was slowly but surely becoming dire as the nights passed. The single mother was running out of option.

Hoping that this decision wouldn’t come back to bit her in the neck, she walked toward her working table, and from a hidden drawer, she pulled out a hand mirror.

Taking out her necklace from under her shirt, she brought it near the pearl at the top of it and murmured a few words under her breath.

The mirror surface clouded at her words, and roughly ten seconds late, a familiar figure appeared in it.

The man in the mirror was wearing black suit pants with a yellow waistcoat over a white shirt. The sleeves were rolled above the elbows, and everything would have seemed normal from an outsider perspective if it weren’t for the fact that if his body looked human, his head was one of a cat. He was covered from head to toes by a dark grey fur, making his electrical blue eyes stand out even more.

Naoko couldn’t help but smile in relief as she took into the tired, but alive, face of one of her oldest friends.

Her vis-à-vis had a similar relieved expression himself.

“Well, I had thought that you had forgotten everything about us!” said the man lightly in the mirror, even if Naoko could see that a huge weight had been removed from his shoulder.

“How could I when you are the reason that my daughter and I are still alive on this day?”

The man chuckled, shaking his head, and the woman could see that he had lost part of his left ear since the last moment she had seen him.

She decided to say nothing out of respect for him.

“I suppose you have something to ask me because I know for sure that you are aware of the risks you are taking by contacting me so soon after your escape.”

“You know me too well, Duke,” laughed Naoko, “It’s about Haru.”

Duke frowned, “What about her? Is she alright?”

“She is, but ever since we come here, she didn’t have a single night without having a nightmare about… Him…”

The half-cat in the mirror frowned, “I guess that the repressing memories spell have some dire side effect then.” He sighed and rubbed his eyes, “I should have thought about this possibility.”

“We were in a kind of hurry when you cast it, I don’t blame you for that.”

“Still, I am not wrong by saying that she might have lost a lot of sleep since they started?”

Naoko sighed, “You are right, that’s why I called you. I was hoping that you have a solution to keep them at bay. At this rate they’re coming, I begin to fear for her health.”

Duke scratched his chin with one hand, deep in thoughts.

“I may have an idea.” Eventually said the half-cat, getting the attention of the woman.

“I am listening.”

oOoOoOoOo

 _Haru was running_. _She knew that the monster was behind her, chasing her, cackling and the little girl couldn’t help herself but sobbed as she tried to escape the shadow that was following her._

_Then, suddenly, the dark corridors she was in disappeared, and the next moment, she was surrounded by stars._

_Stopping dead in her tracks, she looked around her and realised that she wasn’t chased anymore. A relieved sigh escaped her as she let her body float in the space that was surrounding her._

_She felt that someone was caressing her head, telling her that she could now sleep peacefully. She knew it wasn’t her mother, but maybe another child a little older than herself._

_She wasn’t sure._

_But it didn’t matter. Because for the first time for several months, Haru knew that she was safe in dreams._


	2. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year everyone! I hope you are all doing well!
> 
> Here's the next update of my story! I hope you'll like it! ^^
> 
> I own nothing, as The Cat Returns is a propriety of Ghibli's studio!
> 
> Enjoy!

_The young woman was held against a firm and familiar chest, like a bride in the arms of her new husband. She grabbed for dear life at her saviour as he ran from unseen enemies. Her puffy dress billowed in the air, and she wondered if it weren't a problem for the one who was carrying her._

_He was climbing some invisible stairs leading toward the infinite universe where nebulas and galaxies were dancing in the sky's ink-black colour._

_Someone was shouting to-_

"What are you writing?"

Haru jumped at the question, not seeing her best friend coming closer to her until she was looking over her right shoulder.

Putting one hand against her chest, she mocked-glare at the reddish-brunette next to her.

"A warning would be greatly appreciated next time, Hiromi! I was this close from having a heart attack!" playfully complained the former, showing a tiny space between her index and her thumb at the other one.

"We both know that should it happen, I'll be right behind you to get your sorry back out of hell by the skin of your neck." Laughed back the newcomer before sitting herself at the table next to the brunette, then she pointed at the notebook, "I'll ask again, what's this?"

"Just my dream diary," answered Haru, finishing her sentence before closing it. "I didn't get the time to put it down into sentences this morning, just a few keywords before rushing to school. So here I am."

"Well, if you decided to wake up when your clock's beeping instead of putting it into snooze mode…"

"Well, 's not my fault if I'm a night owl." Grumbled the brunette while fetching her bento box from her bag, putting it between them.

"Did you put in it your special vinaigrette?" asked Hiromi, her eyes sparkling.

"Yeah, and don't forget that Monday's your turn."

"Oh, I won't" chuckled the reddish brunette, while dividing the bento content between the two of them, " Wouldn't like to repeat last time fiasco."

Haru giggled a little, thinking back at the day when Hiromi had forgotten to prepare their meal for two. They had to spend the whole day without eating, which wouldn't have been such a problem if it hadn't been for the fact that they had PE as the last class of the day. At the end of the warm-up, both girls had saw whole constellations, and the teacher had to call for the school nurse as they couldn't move from the ground they had fallen.

Needless to say that since that day, Haru never missed the chance of teasing her best friend about the incident.

Both girls chatted eagerly during the meal break, always finding new subjects to talk about until it was time for class to start again.

Haru cleaned up the table, helped by Hiromi, before putting her bento box back into her bag.

She took the diary she had left on a corner of her desk and after a quick look at what she had written, nodded to herself and put it back into her bag, not thinking about it after that.

oOoOoOoOo

"Oh, how I hate rain season..." grumbled Hiromi while taking her umbrella out from her bag.

"Do you want to come to my house? It's closer to yours, and it'll avoid you to catch a cold." Asked Haru, doing the same.

"Nah, I have some chores to do at home, and I don't want Ma getting mad at me for not doing them sooner." Sheepishly answered her best friend, looking a bit uneasy, "But thanks for the thought! Want to go see a movie tomorrow?"

"I'll tell you once I'm done with my homework session tonight. If I'm too late on schedule, we'll have to delay it to another time."

"I'll keep an eye on my texts, then. See you!"

"See you too!"

Both teenagers parted ways, and Haru put her headphones over her head as she made her way back to her home.

Haru had recently found a renewed interest in movie themes. She soon found herself engrossed in the landscape music created in her mind.

It was something that she often did when she had the feeling that life was becoming too dull for her taste. A sense that she was getting more and more those last few months.

Maybe it was because she was reaching the end of high school or the poor weather that didn't seem to want to go away, but Haru longed for something new.

A car passed by her, and the young woman had to move away to avoid being soaked by the water that splashed in her direction.

That's how she noticed that strange house.

It felt out of place, its old occidental style not blending with the buildings of Tokyo's busy streets. Strangely enough, she had the feeling of having seen it before, even if she knew for sure that she never stepped a foot outside Japan since she was born. Tilting her head on the side, she examined it a little closer from the other side of the road.

It was a two-storey house with only three visible windows and a balcony over the double doors entrance. The timbers were painted in blue over a façade of a very light yellow.

A homey feeling was emanating from the building. Haru knew she would have investigated more if it weren't for the dreadful weather that turned even worse the next moment.

Cursing under her breath, she accelerated her pace, leaving the strange feeling behind her, and soon enough, she had forgotten about it.

oOoOoOoOo

"I'm home!" shouted Haru from the entrance, closing the door behind her and shaking the umbrella from the rest of the water on it.

Her mother didn't answer back, meaning that she was either nose-deep into her work, or out doing some groceries.

She took her shoes off, put her slippers on and went into the kitchen to prepare herself a cup of tea, dumping her bag on the ground next to the dinner table on her way.

Fishing from the cupboard her favourite blend of the moment (green tea leaves, rose petals and bits of tropical fruits), she put some water to boil and went to open the window.

A familiar white cat made her appearance, meowing in relief as she finally was in a dry place.

"Hello, Yuki," smiled Haru, scratching the cat's head, "Dreadful weather outside, isn't it?"

The cat meowed in agreement, making the young woman chuckled a little.

"I wouldn't have said better myself."

The teenager lowered the fire under the water and took a towel from the fresh laundry bag. Grabbing Yuki from where she was sitting, the brunette enveloped her in the fluffy fabric and began to dry her.

The cat meowed and melted in her embrace.

"It feels good, huh?" asked Haru.

The only response she received was a grateful purr.

From the corner of her eyes, she saw that the water was boiling. She turned the fire off and delicately took the water out the cooker and poured its content in a mug. Still holding Yuki, she put the pot in the sink, drop her tea bag in the cup to let it infuse. Taking the honey out from another cupboard, she precariously brought everything in the sitting where she let herself fall in the couch.

The cat seemed to want to get out of the towel, and Haru, judging that the cat was dry enough, took it off and put it next to her, neatly folded to put it with the dirty linen later.

Sighing contently, Haru enveloped her hand around the mug, Yuki a warm presence on her laps.

"I know that we are in June, but with weather like this, all I want to do is to stay at home under a thick blanket reading novels." She commented out loud, and the white cat meowed in agreement while kneading against her belly.

Haru smiled and scratch the cat head, "Sometimes, I wish to be able to understand you. You seem to have a lot of interesting things to say."

Yuki nodded against her, her eyes closed and soon enough, she was taking a nap on the laps of her not-really owner.

The teenage girl smiled and began to sip her tea, sighing as the hot brew gently warmed her inside.

She took her phone and read all the notifications she had received since the morning, chuckling at some silly jokes she found on different Facebook groups.

Half an hour later, she heard someone opening the front door as well as the familiar sound of bags being dropped on the ground.

"Haru?" someone called.

"In the living room, mom!" answered back the young woman, "Unfortunately, I can't help you. Yuki is monopolizing my laps once again!"

She heard an exaggerated sigh coming out from her mother.

"Really, I still don't know why I am letting you take care of her." She mocked accused.

Truth to be told, the first time Yoshioka Naoko had seen her daughter petting the white cat after giving it her fish crackers several years ago, the older woman had freaked out and forbidden young Haru from being close to Yuki, or any other cat.

She had gone against her mother wish and daily took care of the cat, always being severely reprimanded each time Naoko caught her red-handed.

Then one day, her mother told her it was okay for her to keep Yuki. Since then, she had become a part of the family while still being not quite domesticated, sometimes spending days without being seen.

Haru was quite fine with the arrangement even if she sometimes wondered what could have changed her mother's mind like that overnight.

As if understanding that her not quite mistress was needed somewhere else, the white cat jumped from Haru's laps. She stretched a little before trotting toward the kitchen where Naoko was, rubbing against the older woman legs while purring.

Not having any excuses to stay on the couch, Haru stood up and went to help her mother. Dancing around each other to put the groceries away, the teenage girl listened to her mother about the day she had.

She learned that Noako's boss was finally letting her take a week off for all the days she had worked when she didn't have too.

Haru was glad heard that, as she couldn't remember the last time her mother had at least a day off.

Soon enough, the pair were done with the groceries. After looking at the clock, Haru realized that she had to begin her homework soon if she wanted to sleep before midnight.

"I'm going to my room, some work to do. Call me when it's time to help you for dinner?"

"Of course, honey." Smiled the woman, "Love you."

"Love you too." Answered the teenager.

She grabbed her schoolbag she had left on the ground earlier and after one last scratch on Yuki's head, who seemed to have decided to stay with Naoko and went into her room upstairs.

Once sitting at her desk, she realized that she still had her bento box in her bag. Shrugging, she put it near her door, intending of taking it downstairs when she would be called for dinner.

She took her works for the weekend and didn't spare a second look to her dream diary as she put it on her bedside table.

She groaned while reading her first assignment.

 _How I hate mathematics_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I'm looking forward your opinions about it!
> 
> Until next time I wish you all an amazing day!


	3. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello there!  
> Welcome to this chapter two!  
> I'll try to update this story as often as possible, but I can guarantee nothing!  
> I own nothing outside the plot of this fanfic!  
> Have an amazing day!

To her utmost surprise, Haru found herself going through all of her math assignment in less than three hours. She was so shocked with her achievement that she sent a picture of her textbook to Hiromi, adding a ‘ _can you believe it?!’_ for form.

Stretching her arms high above her head, the teenage girl took the empty flask she always kept in her bedroom and went to the bathroom to refill it. A quick pause at the top of the stairs told her that her mother was most likely still in front of the TV while sewing some personal project she had and Haru went back into her room to continue her homework.

A small light blinked on her phone, and the teenage girl deduced that Hiromi had answered her.

_So tomorrow’s day out?_

Haru chuckled before tipping back,

_I’ll try to be up before twelve so that we can go somewhere grab some food before whatever you’ll want to do._

She waited a few seconds before receiving a gif with some famous guys showing a thumb up. With a smile, she turned her phone off, then took her next assignment.

Once the dreaded mathematics behind her, Haru quickly went through some more minors exercises, and one hour and a half later, she put her pen down. She only had some readings to do, and she decided to keep them for the long hours of insomnia that she was well acquainted with.

On cue, she heard her mother calling her from the down the stairs.

The rest of the night went on like usual, and Haru bid her mother goodnight before going up into her room to prepare herself for the night.

After a quick stop at the bathroom to brush her teeth and refill one last time her little flask of water, she was in pyjamas, under her bedsheet with her laptop on her knees.

As she began to lose herself on the internet, Haru noticed that she had received an email in one of her oldest address, one that she didn’t use anymore. Frowning, she clicked on the notification and felt sick reading who was the sender.

 _Why do you ignore me? I want you to answer me. I promise it’s just a big misunderstanding…!_ The mail read, and the young woman deleted it without opening it.

With a sigh, she dropped her head on her pillow. It seemed that her ex, Machida, still didn’t want to leave her alone, even six months after their break-up.

Both of them had frequented the same middle school, and even with her extreme shyness, she had managed to ask him out during their last year before high school. They had stayed together until his jealous, almost violent behaviour, and infidelity had the better of Haru’s nerve. She had put an end to their relationship the moment she realised how toxic he had been, almost separating her from her mother and her best friend in his possessiveness.

He hadn’t taken it well, though, to the point she had to go to another high school for her last year just to be able to get away from him.

Hiromi, wonderful friend she was, had followed her, and Haru couldn’t be more grateful to the other girl for that.

She had learnt quite a few lessons from this experience, and she was glad that she got the chance to know them sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, this experience had taken away from her all the naivety she had left.

A shame, as her mother had said, but it was for the best.

She knew that she had nothing to fear from her ex. Still, she put Machida on her blacklist on this unused address and decided to keep an eye open in case just in case he tried something rash.

Feeling herself falling into some dark thoughts, she put some silly-video playlist on Youtube. Before she knew it, she had fallen asleep, her laptop still on her laps.

oOoOoOoOo

_The chink of China brought the girl out of her reverie._

_“Thank you.” She murmured to her vis-à-vis, taking the cup of tea._

_A gentle smile was her answer, added to a soft look into deep green eyes that the young woman had the feeling to know better than the back of her hand._

_“Something is troubling you.” asked her companion_

_Outside the window, a whale was swimming alongside hummingbirds in a forest._

_Drinking her coffee, the girl shrugged, “The same as usual.”_

_“I don’t believe you, but I won’t insist for the moment.” Gently admonished the other one and the sun's rays on him made her think of an orange sunset._

_Opening an umbrella to protect herself from the rain, she stood up. “I’ll better be going.” She said._

_“Let me accompany you.”_

_The next moment, they were running. Someone was chasing them, and she was scared._

_“What’s happening?” she asked, but all she could see was the back of her rescuer, his light grey suit and the stars._

_Suddenly, she stumbled, missed a step, and the next thing she knew, she was falling from the sky._

With a gasp, Haru woke up. Still half asleep, she grabbed her pen and her diary and began to write in it like a madwoman. She didn’t look twice at her laptop as it crashed on the ground.

Ten minutes later, she was done, and the last bit of her dream was fading away.

Blinking several times at the scrawled lines in front of her, she then registered that her laptop had fallen on the ground. She looked successively at both objects before she groaned and fall back into her mattress.

Thirty seconds later, her alarm rang, and Haru almost punched it.

Huffing, she stood up, telling herself that at least, she won’t be late to meet Hiromi later that day.

Taking her computer from the ground, she turned it around, checking for any kind of damage and sighed in relief when founding nothing.

Putting it on her desk, Haru stretched then took her diary, rereading what she had written.

It had been an idea from her therapist. For a while, she had seen them when she was younger while dealing with her sleeping issues, like insomnia or recurring nightmares. They had told her to write down what she was dreaming about to understand the root of all her problems and move on from there.

As the years went by, she began to have fewer nightmares, but she had kept the habit. Maybe it was pointless to do so now, but Haru told herself that it could be a source of inspiration if she wanted to be a novelist in the future.

Opening it at a blank page, she began to review her last entries, writing down recurrent themes. The stranger with green eyes and the cup of tea was something that she had dreamt about for several years already. The escape with said stranger was something more recent.

For the blink of a second, there was the picture of cats dancing in front of her mind's eyes, and on a whim, she decided to add it on her list, a question mark along with it.

Closing it, Haru left her diary on her bed, stood up and went to the bathroom. Absentmindedly, she tried to figure out what her recurrent dreams, or at least their common themes, could mean as she washed her hands after doing her affairs, then her face.

Rubbing some last bit of sleep from her eyes, she almost jumped out of her skin as she saw her mother in the hallway as she exited the bathroom.

“Oh! Sorry, sweetie! Did I scare you?” asked her mother worriedly.

“A little, I didn’t hear you…” answered eventually the teenager, one hand against her chest.

As a matter of fact, Haru rarely heard her mother’s footstep, she never had, and she guessed she never will. It was one of the oddities that made her mom her mom.

“Well, it’s unusual for you to be up so early.”

“I’m going to meet Hiromi in town later in the morning. She wanted to eat somewhere before going to see some film.” Explained Haru, kissing her mother on the cheek before heading downstairs.

“Sharing bento, going out together, are you _sure_ you two are not dating?” teased Naoko, and Haru decided not to answer, only rolling her eyes in amusement.

Since they were eight years old, both girls were best friend, tied by the hips to each other. Their fusional relationship had led both of them to wonder about their orientations while entering teenagehood.

When they were thirteen years old, they had decided to try to see and kissed each other.

Both girls concluded that even if the experience weren’t unpleasant (Hiromi discovered she might be pan while Haru concluded that she was straight, with a slight attraction for women), they clearly didn’t have romantic feelings for each other. However, after the experience, they became even _closer_ , leading people to be more confused about their relationship.

The young woman ate her breakfast listening with one ear to the news report broadcasted at the radio.

As the journalist spoke of wars and crises in foreign, poorer countries, Haru couldn’t help herself feel disconnected from reality. She longed to be able to do something _good_ for other people, to be able to make their lives a little less gloomy. If she could change one person's life for the better, she knew that she would be happy.

As usual, those kinds of thought led her toward darker paths. And for a second, she realised how much she was unhelpful in the bigger picture that was the world.

Shooking her head to chase her depressing thoughts away, she drank the last bit her hot milk before cleaning the table and running upstairs to get herself ready for the day.

It was sunny outside, after all, and soon enough, she was back to preoccupation that were more of a teenage girl of her age.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A comment is always appreciated!  
> I hope you liked this chapter!

**Author's Note:**

> So? What did you think? I'm looking forward to your opinions on the reviews!
> 
> Until next time, have a fantastic day and stay safe!


End file.
